Environmental Conservation

By Choe Chong-dae

``Heaven and Earth are like father and mother, and our parents are like Heaven and Earth. Therefore, they are one body," says a framed calligraphic rendition hanging on a wall in my home, and written by Chang Il-soon, a pioneering environmental activist.

The meaning of the message is that heaven and earth are the parents of all living creatures and therefore we as humans should respect heaven and earth as we would respect our parents. If everyone would really respect heaven and earth, the conservation condition of our environment would improve most naturally.

And that is important, since human beings cannot survive a single day without environmental benefits such as air, water and soil. Thus it is a mission of survival for mankind to respect the environment and to minimize its exploitation for our lives.

In the wake of rapid industrialization and urbanization many natural ecosystems have been seriously harmed or destroyed by human activities. During the past few decades, environmental issues have become increasingly significant in almost every aspect of modern life, from politics and business to religion and entertainment.

The world's environmental problems have now become some of the most serious issues of today and a true global crisis may occur if we hesitate to take quick action in preventing the earth from getting warmer. As we are aware of the fact that pollution transcends national boundaries, people from every corner of the world should make extensive efforts to find solutions to environmental problems without disrupting the ecological system, which is most essential for human life.

Global warming has occurred from the surge in greenhouse gas emissions produced during the development of industry and burning fossil fuels. As a result, leading industrialized countries should take the lead in drastically curbing greenhouse gas emissions because historically they have been greatly responsible for global warming in their process of industrialization. These countries should undertake a national obligation and responsibility to tackle global warming and the pollution of the natural environment. Korea is no exception and must reduce emission of carbon dioxide though the country seriously needs energy for their economic development.

To coexist in harmony with nature in the future, humans should invest substantially in expanding environmentally-friendly social infrastructures and encourage projects of green industries to promote low carbon products based on clean energy.

For the last several decades, Korea has strongly encouraged forestation and has produced successful artificial vegetation zones even though the country has one of the world's highest population densities. Needless to say, trees may be the most important and useful plants on earth as they filter the air of carbon dioxide and provide us with oxygen to breathe. Deforestation causes severe environmental damage, including a loss of biodiversity and a direct impact on climate change.

I am delighted to learn that Kwon Byung-hyun, former Korean ambassador to China, was appointed as ``Green Ambassador," the first Sustainable Land Management Champion, by the United Nations Convention Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in December.

Upon his retirement from diplomatic services, Ambassador Kwon has been serving as president of the Future Forest non-profit organization to raise awareness about the issues of desertification and the yellow dust storms, and to promote participation among young people in environmental activities on the issues of desertification. He has been devoting his efforts toward the planting of trees for more than 10 years, having planted approximately 26 million thus far.

The project has been running annual tree planting campaigns in the Kubuchi Desert in Inner Mongolia, known as a major origin of yellow dust. Ambassador Kwon initiated constructing the ``Korea-China Friendship Great Green Wall" in the Kubuchi Desert of China, made of natural forest to tame the "yellow dragon." Many Korean and Chinese university volunteers called ``Green Crops" participated in the project.

I wish the project will inspire hope and enthusiasm among the international community that is looking for renewed impetus for action on desertification. And I also hope more people will take the lead in creating green belts and protect against human greed, which may lead to environmental catastrophe.

Our precious eco-systems are not only gifts that we have inherited from those who came before us. More importantly, they are gifts that we borrow temporarily from the following generations as well. It is our duty to hand them down to future generations in as unspoiled a condition as possible. We therefore should spearhead efforts to better conserve the natural environment by living in harmony with nature so that our descendants can breathe fresh air.

The writer is president of Dae-kwang International Co. and the Korean representative of Compagnie Cotonniere of Paris, as well as a long-time director of the Korean-Swedish Association. He can be reached at dkic98@chol.com.